Heel base for shoes



Nov. 27, 1928. 1,693,160 c. o. RYBERG HEEL BASE FOR SHOES Filed Jan. 16 1928 Patented Nov. 27, 1928.

PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES O. RYBERG', OF BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

HEEL BASE FOR SHOES.

Application filed January 16, 1928. Serial No. 247,085.

This invention relates to a shoe having an attached heel and including a. heel base interposed between the heel end portion of the outsole and the heel, and having a flat outer face conforming to the top or inner face of the heel, which is attached to the shoe by nails or like fasteners, extending through the heel base.

The object of the invention is to provide, at a minimum expense, an article of manufacture constituting a heel base of strong, durable, and practically non-distortable construction, and including an exposed body portion composed of layers of compressible material, such as leather, or a leather substitute, and a reinforcing or stiffening layer of sheet metal, which permits the use of relatively cheap flexible material, such as low grade leather, or various cheap substitutes for leather, as the material ormaterials of which the body portion of the base is made.

Of the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification,-

Figure 1 is a top plan view of a heel base embodying the invention.

Figure 2 is an enlarged section on line 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3is an enlarged section on line 3-3 of Figure 1.

Figures 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 show separately and in perspective, the layers composing the heel base shown by Figures 1, 2 and 3.

Figure 9 is a fragmentary sectional view, showing the heel end portions of the outer and inner soles of a shoe, the heel base shown by Figure 2, and a heel attached to the shoe by fasteners, extending through the heel base.

Figure 10 is a view similar to Figure 2, showing a modification.

Figure 11 is a fragmentary perspective view, similar to a portion of Figure 6, showing another modification.

The same reference characters indicate the same parts in all of the figures.

Referring first to Figures 1 to 9, 12 designates the inner sole, 13 the outer sole, and 14 the heel which, in this instance, isa rubber heel attached to the soles 12 and 13, and to a portion 15 of the upper, by the usual nails 16.

My improved heel base includes a liftshaped body portion composed of layers of material, such as leather, or aleather substitute, which is sufiiciently compressible to permit the hereinafter described external form to be imparted to said body portion by suitable forming instrumentalities. The base includes also a stiffening layer 17, of sheet metal, entirely concealed by the body portion, when the base is incorporated in a shoe. The layers of which the body portion is composed, are formed, assembled, coated with cement, and united under pressure, to provide at the inner side of the base, a recessed or concave innerfaceformed to bear on the bulging or convex outer face of the heel end portion of the outsole 13, and at the outer side ofthe base a substantially fiat face, formed to bear on the in nor or top face of the heel 14.

- To provide said faces, I place side by side in contact with each other, two U-shaped rand strips or sections 18 and 19, cement being applied to the meeting faces of the sections, and interpose between the inner edges of said rand sections, the marginal portion of the stiffening layer, bounded by the curved margin 17 thereof, so that said edges overlap considerable areas of the sides of the stiffening layer, as shown by Figures 1 and 2, the cement on the overlapping edges adhering to the sides of the stiffening layer. The outer edges of the sections 18 and 19 meet and are cemented together so that they cover the interposed margin of the stiffening layer. A cementcoated heel-shaped inner layer 20 is applied 1 to the innerside of thestifi'ening layer 17, and a cement-coated.heel-shaped outer layer 21. is applied to the outer side of the stiffening layer. The inner layer 20 has a skived portion 20 (Figure 4) overlapping a portion of the rand section 18, and the outer layer 21 has a skived portion 21 (Figure 8) overlapping a portion of the rand section 19. The arrangement is such that, as clearly shown by Figures 2 and 3, the inner sides of the rand section 18 and the layer 20, collectively form the recessed inner face of the heel base, while the outer sides of the rand section 19 and the layer 21, collectively form the flat outer face, the stiffening layer 17 being between said faces. 1

Each of the heel-shaped layers 17, 20 and 21 has a transverse breast margin corresponding to the breast of the heel. The breast margins 20 and 21 of the layers 20 and 21 are arranged to register with the breast of the heel 1 1, as shown by Figure 9.

The area of the stiffening layer 17 is such that its breast margin 17 is offset from the other breast margins, so that it is entirely concealed by the forward end portions of the rand sections 20 and 21, as best shown by Figure 2, said end portions being caused Inn to meet b the forming pressure exerted on the heel ase. The curved margin '17 of the stiffening layer is entirely concealed by the edge portions of the rand sections 18 and 19, between which it is interposed; The

stiffening layer is, therefore, invisible, when shown by Figure (5, or notches, as shown by.

Figure 11. 'lheir area is enough greater than the diameter of the nails to permit the stiffening layer to be used as an element of heel bases and heels of different sizes, the openings permitting the nails tooccupy different lateral positions therein. The stiffening layer may be provided with integral upstand- 7 ing spurs 2e, adapted to penetrate the outsole 13. r

The; rand sections 18 and 19, cement-ed together and to the stiffening layer, constitute a U-shaped marginal portion, having a'thick outer margin and decreasing in thickness therefrom to the inner margin. One side of said marginal portion forms a portion of the recessed inner face of the heel base, and the other side a portion of the flat outer face.

A heel base as desirable in some respects as that above described, and less desirable in others, may be madewithout the innerheelshaped layer 20, as shown by Figure 10; Al-

though a portion of the stiffening layer isthus exposed on one side of the heelbase,

this portion is concealed when the-heel base is incorporatedin a shoe.

The stiffening layer 17 imparts to the heel base such strength and resistance to bending strain, that the other layers may be made of less substantial and expensive material than would otherwise be necessary. The layers 20 and 21 may be pieced, as indicated by Figures l and 8, so that waste scraps of leather may be used in their construction, the stiffening layer 1 lieving these layers from the duty of resisting bending: or buckling strain.

It will be seen that the described heel base may be manufactured and sold to shoemakers as an article of manufacture.

It will also be seen that the heel base may be a lift of a manufactured heel, prepared for attachment to the heel end of a shoe bot tom, the heel base being supplen'iented by a heel body, which may be the rubber heel 14 (Figure 9), or may be otherwise constructed, the heel body being attached by any suitable means to the heel base, and composed, if desired, of leather lifts.

'I claim:

1. A heel base formed to be interposed between the'outer face of the heel end portion of a shoe outsole and the top face of aheel attachedto the shoe, said base comprising a heel-shaped body composed of layers of compressible material, and having a recessed innor face, formed to bear on an outsole, and a flat outer face formed to bear on a heel, and a stillening layer of sheet metal of smaller area than the body, and secured thereto witl its margin entirely within the margin of the body, and concealed thereby when the heel base isincorporated in a shoe.

2. A heelbase as specified by claim 1, the

stiffeninglayer being provided with openings formed and arranged to receive heel fasteners engaging a heel and extending through the heel base, the area of said openings being such that the fasteners may occupy different lateral positions therein.

3. A heel base as specified by claim 1, the stifi'ening layer being provided with upstanding spurs adapted to penetrate an outsole.

4. A heel base formed to be interposed between the outer face of the heel endportion of a shoe outsole and thetop face of a heel at its margin to one side of the marginal portion and forming therewith a recessed inner face, adapted to bear on an outsole, and a heel-shaped outer layer cemented at its margin to the opposite side-of the marginal portion, and forming therewith a fiat outer face, adapted to bear ona heel, the heel base comprising also a heel-shaped st-ifiening layer of sheet metal of smaller area than the body, the curved margin of the stiffening layer being interposed between'and covered by. the

outer marginal portions of said rand-shaped layers, and its breast margin-being: interposed between and covered by the breast portions of the innerand outer layers of the body, so that the stiffening layer is entirely concealed by the body.

Intestimony whereof I have afiixed my signature.

CHARLES o. RYBERG. 

